I finally saw the Mandolorian after people kept asking me over and over. It has issues but at least felt like an old Dark Horse Star Wars Tales comic or something for the most part. So I had to watch these as an Obi-Nerd.

My two cents: You can tell the production values went down here immediately. Some dodgy effects shots and the photography continually has flat empty visuals. There are moments that do recall fan films and not in the good way. (The awful staging of the chase in the trees cracked me up as did the certain cameo.)

The draw is the return of Obi-Wan and McGregor is giving a really good performance…with not much to do. The plotting and villains are so one note it’s quite dire. Actually I think the villains are truly dire. I threw my hands up early on at how silly it was.

I do agree the opening has TFA vibes.

Of all the solid or great Obi-Wan tales already out there…they sorta took a mishmash general approach with zero surprise or depth. You could’ve shot Miller’s Kenobi novel without changing a thing and it would’ve been great. Or they could’ve done the opening books of The Last of the Jedi series which is where I thought they would go seeing the setting of Ep2.

It’s especially disappointing as I’ve played around with my own Obi-Wan solo story script ideas for years. They could’ve gone for something with real depth. My idea was to do George’s “space western” with Ben being like the haunted James Stewart characters of Anthony Mann’s psychological westerns-on a journey of eventual redemption. Even thought of dropping Ben on Nar Shadaa to stop a secret Imperial force-sensitive children’s facility.

The lead performance is great and on point. For me that’s about it.